Siena V

It's amazing to me how monkey-hear monkey-say lingual learning is. At least by immersion. I am constantly imagining myself as a transmorphic sponge, keen on absorbing as much of my audio surroundings as possible. I'm thinking of it as being auditorially observant in a similar way to how I've been practicing being visually observant with Drawing class, ecc.

In terms of heightening my observation acumen, Photography is proving to be a worthwhile endeavor. Prepare yourself for an over-the-top simile. You might actually want to be sitting down for this.

Somewhere in the tortuous (not torturous) innerworkings of my mind I've started linking photography to learning a new language. Both involve capturing a "phrase" (visual or auditory) and then recreating it later (photo print or spoken sentence). I've actually been trying "double exposure" with language more than with photography, where I try to layer phrases or apply disparate grammatical rules that I don't quite understand. That way I sound less like a parrot (and as it turns out, more like a parrot with hiccups who's had too much to drink and can't find his shoes). I have much less fear of vulnerability when it comes to learning a new language. I tend to be more outgoing than in my native language. What do I have to lose? I get much more instantaneous feedbak with language, whereas photo takes a darkroom and the whole shebang. When trying to "develop" what I've heard several things come into play such as shutterspeed and aperture size used, filter, exposure time, ecc. On the language hand, you have to pay attention to pronunciation, emphasis on certain syllables, supplementary hand gestures and the appropriate time to plug in said phrase.

One of my favorite parts of speaking my non native language is that the most banal and painfully obvious observations suddenly become cute an almost validate international publication. Per esempio, we were driving around very windy country roads this weekend. L'autista Gionata ha detto "qui' ci sono le strade ocn tante curve." Later on, we walked by a playground cannopied by twisty trees and I said "anche questi alberi hanno tante curve!" Mentre redendo, lui ha detto "devi essere programmatrice di computer perche' trovi le somiglianze fra le cose diverse." Ecco qua' il piu' bello complimento della vita mia. :)

I understand that potential negative framing of traveling so often, but it gives me a chance to really contemplate what I'm into. Some of those train rides are looooong. I keep finding myself drawn to language and etomology, but that rarely shows up in my actual creations. I do enjoy tinkering with materials and just seeing what I come up with, but sometimes I would like to try to have more specific intentions. I've been reading on Xu Bing's website and looking at images. These are some quotes I picked out:

"My viewpoint is that wherever you live, you will face that place’s problems. If you have problems then you have art. Your plight and your problems are actually the source of your artistic creation."

"As long as you are a true artist every field that you are engaged in outside of art circles—living and working—will produce treasure, which sooner or later will be used in the creation of your art."

One of my favorite pieces is the Magic Carpet from 2006.

I find words very tranquil and pleasing. Writing letters is one of my favorite things to do. I don't actually write "poetry," but I simply try to appreciate words in order to conteract the daily drone of taking them for granted as mere utilitarian gears.